ToeJam and Earl III

ToeJam and Earl III for the XBox is a great game for funk-loving teenagers, and even features a naughty/nice setting so younger kids can play too!

You're in control of three funky space aliens who love funk music. There's the slim, hip DJ ToeJam, the portly, upbeat Earl, and their female sassy chick Latisha. All three have unique personalities and really get along well together, while poking fun at each other too.

The general plot is about as meaningful as any other capture-coins-and-solve-quests game, which means not much at all :). It's very similar to Spyro. You start out in a "world" (The Grassy Zone) with a look. In this case everything is grassy and green. From there you gather keys and go into sub-worlds, each with its own keys to collect, items to gather, enemies to "funkify". Your ultimate aim is to find all of the funk albums that were lost by your leader.

The graphics are great. Each character has his or her own moves, and is nicely 3D rendered. The worlds through which they jump, swim, fly and crawl are great. The trees in the grassy land are different from each other and look like trees. The water ripples. The city streets of the Urban Zone have graffiti on them and have street lights and other objects. The sky cycles from day to night. It's very well done!

Combat is great, too. You're not actually "killing" things, unlike Spyro and other similar games. Instead, you're trying to "funkify" all these poor musically-inept humans! You run after them blasting them with your funk rays and notes, and eventually they get a shining disco ball over their head indicating that they now appreciate funk music. It is TOOOO funny!

Add in to that the wicked sense of humor the characters have. Note again that there is that nice-naughty setting. So if kids are playing, the comments are pretty tame. "Why don't you have a mouth?", one girl asks TJ. "I wanna be just like you, Latisha" says another. Each player's comments are unique, and they say different things to different people. Some are hilarious! Even the naughty setting isn't "bad", it's just a little risque.

We've played this game both with adults and kids and everyone has loved it. Get with the funk, and get your own copy!